The major indexes fell nearly 1 percent earlier after a U.S. Labor Department report showed employers cut 263,000 jobs in September, far more than the 180,000 job losses forecast in a Reuters survey.

I'm somewhat surprised at the resilience of the market to the numbers out this morning. It's probably a reflection of some of the extreme weakness we saw yesterday, said Keith Hembre, chief economist at First American Funds in Minneapolis.

But signs of a weak economic recovery also came from the chairman of Wal-Mart Stores Inc , the world's biggest retailer. Rob Walton forecast a slow recovery from challenging U.S. business conditions, while Wal-Mart's Asia operations are a little better.

Market reaction was muted to new orders received by U.S. factories that posted their first drop in five months in August, going against Wall Street expectations.